Author: Chinhwa He

Please see the file attached, thanks!

I follow the last weeks’ feedback and have found more images about “Bella”. The images show the decent life that the character has, I imaging what do the characters have been through and what the actress felt after pretending to be someone else, will she have the sense of unevenness? The quantity of the images of she works as different occupations are more outstanding than her personal life.

Bella has so many different occupations and interesting spare time in iStock World, I can’t help to relate to the real-life, woman seems don’t have that much choice and generally don’t share the equal rights that man does in reality, especially in China, woman exceeds the specific age have less competitive because the society assumes that they will have to focus more on the family than the job. I would like to address that, showing the contrast between Bella’s story and real-life by using the images to make a ridiculous feeling document.

By emphasising the delusional life that Bella had, I quote some sentences from some feminist books that relate to work or self-value, and combine them together with the story:

“Capabilities are clearly manifested only when they have been realized.” ― Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

“You cannot easily fit women into a structure that is already coded as male; you have to change the structure. That means thinking about power differently. It means decoupling it from public prestige. It means thinking collaboratively, about the power of followers not just of leaders. It means, above all, thinking about power as an attribute or even a verb (‘to power’), not as a possession.”

― Mary Beard, Women & Power: A Manifesto

“Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. (…) Women have had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves. Women, then, have not had a dog’s chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one’s own”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

etc.

Using the form of pirated movies that are downloaded from the internet, which always have the scrolling advertisement at the top and consciously insert to your head. Here I refer the cinematic story of Bella to something artificial and idealized, and the quotes from feminist books refer to things that actually happen and are contentious in reality, using this way of narrative to trigger the critical reflection.

Feedback:

Working: 

– Interesting relate to the feminism

– Advertisement(can communicate the artificial aspect of it than the google voice)

in this context devalued, allude the perfect story to lack valued

– The use of feminist text with the subtitle is powerful

Not working:

– Google voice&artificial aspect of it. It is not working well. (It can be only subtitle or someone narrative)，the audio might be better if it is recorded by a real person.

– The text was devalued in the form of scrolling subtitles.

Maybe:

– Ultimate part

– Maybe some negative

– Two different narratives, two different voices incorporate in.

– Bring your perspective in. Maybe cultural aspects.

The set I choose developed is iStockphoto. iStockphoto basically is an endless storage website of paid images. Seeing tones of photos, it is natural to notice some similarities between images. Under different themes on iStock, the stereotype of one thing are outstanding. Because most of the images there are for commercial use, and they were designed at the start.

The first set is the smiley face under the “workspace photos” which look positive, and people seem to be doing their work happily in the photos, but the actual situation is usually the opposite.

The second set is when you use the search engine to search a word, if it is something abstract, the outcome could be very metaphorical, and if the word has a different meaning, the outcome could be opposite. 

Above the second set, images are more likely related to the core of “visual communication” but don’t seem to be the key to using iStockPhoto as inspiration.

The third set shows the actor/actress playing different characters in different scenes, having multiple parallel life, and most of them are living a “decent” life in the iStock world.

Feedback:

1. Explore further about Bella, and the people that have a “relationship” with her.
2. The first set might combine with Bella set, since the shared the same feeling of “wonderful life”.
3. If go explore the NOISE set, there are good noise and bad noise can be play with.

As a graphic designer with an interest in architecture, all visual details in space are magnified, and this is often closely related to sociology and anthropology.

The physical space is finite, but when the objects in the space are given meaning, it is magnified and becomes infinite. As Georges Perec says in Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, space is formed where the eye reaches, and the objects that block the view form the boundaries of space. In the observation of the construction site, the fence acts as a physical barrier, blocking the view of passersby and creating an inner private space in the public place. It can be observed that some enclosures are opaque and some are semi-translucent, and because they have some gaps and loopholes that can be peek into by outsiders, the boundaries of the space become ambiguous. If the meaning of enclosure is abstracted as a concept or a form, can it be metaphor to some setting for information hierarchy layers or the protection of boundaries?

The vision of peeking is incomplete, but always automatically captures information within our mind to form a seemingly complete picture, which is like the information we see, heard, and read to compose the perception of an event. In the view of Gestalt psychologists, what is perceived is greater than what is seen by the eye. By combining different pieces of information about the building site and guiding the viewer in a hierarchical manner from the outside to the inside, the viewer can automatically capture the picture they want to capture by perception in their minds. Italian designer Bruno Munari uses Gestalt psychology to begin a series of explorations of graphics that challenge people’s perception of images in a humorous yet scientific way.

In short, visual blocking apply the uncertainty to access to information, which make it more fun. And the three-dimensional, spatial arrangement of information seems to make this interactive way of reading more interesting and imaginative.

Bibliography：

Perec, G., 1974. Species of spaces and other pieces. London: Penguin.

David Rein. 2020. A *New* Program for Graphic Design. America: Inventory Press.

The curiosity often drives people’s attention to imaging what’s inside a construction site, this could be symbolized by knowing someone on social media, or the truth of the news. The way of peeking could be symbolized by searching the information on the internet.

I have found the website of the site in Old Street, London.

Interestingly, if you try to go deeper into the location, you can find much information about Old Street, the history and the prospect of it. Conversely, very few about Sixty six City Road.

Above are the rich history of Old Street and how the property agents boast about it to try to sell at a better price.

There is even have no street that names Sixty Six City Road. But if I try an alternative way of “Sixty Six” to “66”, you could have different information. Here is the point, the information could lead you to the wrong path so easily, then how could you know the “truth” you found is true?

To put these “wrong” searches further, I tried to use google images, It always shows the most direct message of the keywords. Then I got the results of Sixty Six City Road, which are seemingly not the same location but share the same name.

experiment:

The brief of the final outcome could be the mix-up of the information that was searched on the internet to make it be the “true identity” inside of the place, at the same time, having the mix-up information about how the place currently is on the “plate”. Using AR as a tool to enhance the feeling of peeking — searching.

Since here has been my second week to do the project, there should have more to go after this.

Feedback:

• Maybe finding place on google maps is not interesting thing?
  More interesting is looking through the construction sites and finding out looking through and exploring different levels of transparency around the site. Looking through gaps, mesh etc
• Maybe the idea of true or false isn’t strong enough to go on with a project on. 
• Looking at transparency, the process of trying to understand what is happening behind the construction site without being allowed access. 
• Like the idea of putting the wording and images in context on the site using VR is a strong concept, use a different subject matter. 
• Using the different visuals from the contraction site in your visuals potentially. 
• A really good start –  Last week you were looking at looking and that was the interesting thing about your project – how can you continue that on. Looking through the gaps 

Every society develops under the construction of public and private. My hometown is in China, which is a small city but always has something refurbished and built. When I saw the construction site in London, I felt a sense of connection, even though it was a completely different architectural style.

The majority of construction sites have the “cover” around them, to protect people from getting hurt while walking by the place, and also to hide the privacy or security of the place under construction.

The following images are some other details on the surface of the site that were found in terms of giving metaphors from my subjective perspective.

Curiosity always drives people’s attention when walking by the construction site. What are these places going to be? What’s behind it now? I tried three ways to peek at it.

The feedback I gave myself would be some metaphorical meaning that was too subjective and had no clear logic. Other people in the group thought the way I peek is very interesting, and the things behind it could form a secret society. Houman suggested that I choose a place and learn more about the background, so that I can advance step by step.